After two years without an audience, Les Enfoirés return to Lyon under the sign of "reunion".
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was able to attend the rehearsals of the show whose concerts begin this Thursday evening and which will be broadcast in March on TF1.
While 90% of the artists were not present three days before the first concert, Mimie Mathy assured: “Everything is put in place thanks to the magic of each one and that transmitted to us by the public.
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"One, two, three, four" repeatedly, people running in all directions, bits of song that start without ending and moving scenery.
No doubt, the Enfoirés team has taken its place in the Tony Garnier hall in Lyon.
This Thursday, they will give the first of six concerts of the 2023 edition. The 7,000 places available per evening are "quickly gone", assures the organization.
“There is a particular emotion to find the public, which is an integral part of the Enfoirés and which we missed terribly”, launches Amel Bent, who is in his 17th participation.
Without a specific theme but entitled "one day, always", this year is "under the sign of reunion with a festive side", specifies the communication of the Restos du Coeur.
The last two editions had been carried out without an audience and under specific conditions linked to the health crisis linked to Covid-19.
It is also because Lyon was the first show concerned that the city was chosen again this year.
“For us, the most important thing is the return of the public”, launches in turn Anne Marcassus, producer and artistic director of the Enfoirés show.
The Covid will have left traces for this mythical charity show.
“We were the last to be deprived of concerts, but we are also the last to find our audience”, notes the producer.
For the first time since the launch of the concerts in 1989, the shows will be entirely seated and numbered.
A practical and reassuring side for the unexpected but also a way of adapting to the “family audience” which sometimes does not stay “not far from four hours in the room between the start and the end of the show”, specifies the organization.
About fifty artists on stage
Backstage, a life-size horse, disco ball and surfboards pass each other as props finish building some sets and seamstresses finish costumes.
On the other side of the room, the stage reveals a moving cube, around projected images that suggest chaos.
The interpreter of
My philosophy
rehearses alongside Claire Keim and dancers representing Vianney or Zaz with their name on a card around their neck.
All this under the watchful eye of Mimie Mathy.
The one who counts the most participation in Les Enfoirés confides that day that “90% of the artists are still absent”.
"But in three days, everything will fall into place thanks to the magic of each and that transmitted to us by the public", she assures.
In total, nearly fifty personalities should meet on stage for the recordings, Saturday and Sunday.
What had not happened “for a very long time”, underlines the actress.
A "millimetric" show
Under last-minute impressions, however, everything is "to the millimeter" with "a kind of Bible that dictates all the staging, the words" in place for months, which was imagined to "offer something new and please all generations," says Anne Marcassus.
Adapting quickly, in all circumstances, is a bit of the DNA of the Enfoirés show and of the producer and artistic director.
"We changed the second title of the show again last week," she admits.
The list was however drawn up in the middle of last year but it is necessary to be able to be "reactive with the news", she insists.
Same thing on the side of the guest artists where answers are still expected "until the last moment".
This year, athletes linked to the major events of the year will be the surprise guests.
“Les Enfoirés are essential for Restos du Coeur”
Amel Bent, who is in her 17th edition, reassures: “I have never seen a show not be magical.
We leave our artist egos aside.
We come to modestly contribute our small part and even if we are in the light for six evenings, we are so much less important than all those who do the job all year round.
It is a great duty to be present.
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"Les Enfoirés are essential for Restos du Coeur," says Patrice Douret, president of the association.
In terms of resources because they represent 10% of our contributions, but also in terms of image.
The absence of an audience in Montpellier last year is a dead loss of 4 million euros which has absolutely not been compensated, because we had to cancel everything ten days before the performances.
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As Mimie Mathy concludes: “If we're still here thirty years later, it's because we're still needed”.
In six weeks of the launch of the 38th campaign, the association recorded 18% more registrations compared to the year before.
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